When uncertainty drags on, leaders cycle through sadness, anger, and resistance before reaching acceptance. The path forward: stay focused on your goals, make small strategic adjustments rather than dramatic pivots, and keep your vision intact while the world shifts around you.
Chapters
How should we deal with this prolonged and sustained uncertainty? I don't see business as really any different than individual in this perspective, because I look at the individual in the SARA model, which is sadness, anger, resistance, and then eventually acceptance. And CEOs, executives, managers are going through this very process. Now more than ever, we have to get to task orientation and goals. So a lot of things we need to do inside of companies is accept our reality, make small adjustments. These don't need to be enormous pivots. Becoming somebody that you're really not. They're really something that enables you to pivot very slightly your business strategy while still keeping your business goals and tasks in mind. A lot of the CEOs and people I've talked with and been working with have one very important thing that they're doing. They're staying on task and on goal amidst this incredible crisis. The most important part of vision and keeping to your vision is keeping your tasks. They change, they adapt. Well, what we're finding now is that CEOs are adjusting just slightly and staying on that task goal orientation as they move to acceptance. My advice to everybody now inside of businesses is to still get back to your tasks and goals as you accept and adjust slightly, because right now it's essential that we remain balanced, structured, and really moving toward that future vision that you always had for your company.
